Teacher Who Had to Take Down Her Pink Christmas Tree Is Going Viral for Speaking Out on Political Correctness

Catherine Gordon has been a math teacher at Bangor, Maine's Bangor High School for 30 years, during which time she has put a Christmas tree up in her classroom every year without receiving complaint, the Bangor Daily News reports. This year, however, she was told by the school principal she had to remove her 32-inch artificial pink Hello Kitty Christmas tree.

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Gordon told the Bangor Daily News she had not been notified of a change of policy so she assumed she could put up her tree as usual this year. The email she got from principal Paul Butler allegedly explained "he thought it favored one religion over another and he thought it was inappropriate." Gordon claims the pink tree had no religious ornaments or affiliations, and that it was simply a fun Hello Kitty tree.

"I am very sad," she wrote in a Dec. 18 Facebook post. When "everything offends everyone all the time - it just sucks the joy out of everything," she continued.

Bangor's superintendent Betsy Webb issued a statement Monday in response to the now-viral Facebook post explaining, "The Bangor School Department educates students about culture, traditions and holidays through curriculum ties in English language arts, music, art, social studies and world languages," and that its goal is to educate students on becoming global citizens.

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BDN

Gordon says her students are disappointed her tree is gone and have asked her repeatedly where it went. "In our quest to be tolerant of everything," she told the Bangor Daily News, "we've become intolerant of everything."